Crown
Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne:
Hark! how the heav’nly anthem drowns all music but its own!
Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King thru all eternity...

Crown
Him the Lord of heav’n: One with the Father known;
One with the Sprit thru Him giv’n from yonder glorious throne.
To Thee be endless praise, for Thou for us hast died;
Be Thou, O Lord, thru endless days adored and magnified.

Written in 1851, the hymn “Crown Him with Many
Crowns” exalts Jesus Christ - the matchless
King, the Spirit through Him given,
adored and magnified. The hymn is based
on Revelation 19:12-16, which ends with the declaration: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Christians worship and adore our matchless King, the Lamb upon His throne, and the heavenly
anthem drowns out all music but its own!
Believers have praised the name and worshipped the person of Jesus
Christ for two millennia. Many have been
martyred rather than deny His name. For these
people, Jesus Christ is not some character from a global cast of sages and
prophets recorded in so-called “faith traditions.” He is the living Son
of God. And Holy Scripture is not some
vestigial guidance of a “faith tradition” now viewed as archaic or negotiable and malleable; capable of being bent into any desired creedal pronouncement. No
the Bible is the living Word of God.
Beware – God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). The Book of Hebrews records:

For the word of
God is quick, and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of
him with whom we have to do (4:12-13).

Believers in the 21st Century face a tremendousspiritual threat from within the Body and without.Religious liberalscall for interfaith ecumenism and professed Christians proselytize a dethroned Christ (see also What
is in the Name Jesus Christ?). These apostates further the secular
humanist (anti-Christ) agenda in their pursuit of solely “temporal” goals (see also Religious Liberals Unite for Reasons only
Secular Humanists Can Applaud). Liberal ecumenicals are bent on tearing down
exclusionary creedal and doctrinal barriers which have been anchored in God’s Word
for the purity and unity of the Body for thousands of years. Immersed in trendy global governance politics,
following oppression ideologies, and succumbing to the utopian lure of unified (multi-faith and humanist) humanitarian
aid, these professed believers are blind, if not culpable, to the unprecedented tsunami of universal
spiritualism building just beyond the average believer's spiritual horizon. Religious liberals are involved
in promoting a colossal revolt against God’s will. Can anything good come from such an act of spiritual rebellion? Christians
who recognize this threat and ardently seek their security in the authentic Jesus
Christ will not be lost and carried away when the spiritually toxic wave
crashes ashore in full force.

Bruce Schuman, member of the Board of Directors, The Interspirit Foundation, describes the
global movement he says has been emerging for 30 years or more; a movement best labelled “The Universalist Vision” or “Global Ecumenism”:

My
dream -- is the white lightning of the Holy Spirit, burning as the Axis Mundi
of Love, fusing all the goodness of human civilization into a transformative
energy that launches and vitalizes a new world.

Alliances and partnerships, new
approaches to collaboration, building a unity of understanding across borders. Resonance, the power of circles,
interfaith, unity of spirit[i]

And on his Interspirit.net
website are listed endless descriptors by contributors to this ominous anti-Christian spiritual
tsunami:

"Now, in an extraordinary moment of global
transformation, we will do more than just love: We will join our love and
harness our love. We will pool our resources of forgiveness and imagination and
grace, and in time we will collectively experience what physicists call 'phase
lock', a phenomenon in which individual oscillating rhythms – here, the beats
of many, many hearts around the world – fall into a deep pattern of energetic
resonance. We will form a community of consciousness – a collective love – that
is humanity's next step on our evolutionary journey." Everyday Grace, Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and
Making Miracles (Marianne Williamson)

"The masters and mystics have tapped into the
underground stream of spiritual knowledge that flows beneath the bedrock of all
the great traditions, uniting them and washing away their surface differences.
Through these spiritual guides, we gain access to the collective wisdom that
feeds the human spirit, filtering into our psyches, souls, and biology." Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Caroline
Myss)

"The conversion to Christ need not entail a conversion
to the Christian religion. The word is a symbol for the Child of God within us,
our true identity and a space of remembrance of all that is divine. To be His
disciple is to take on the mantle of His ministry by refusing to acknowledge
the ultimate reality of any walls that divide us." The Gift of Change, Spiritual Guidance for a
Radically New Life (Marianne Williamson)

"The Cosmic Christ is the 'pattern that connects' and
connecting is what all wisdom is about, as the philosopher Gabriel Marcel
points out: 'The true function of the sage is surely the function of linking
together, of bringing into harmony….the sage is truly linked with the
universe.'" The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (Matthew Fox)

"Examine the teachings of all the great sages and seers
who have appeared. You will find them essentially one, although expressed in
different languages, expressed in different forms and formulations of thought
appropriate to the respective ages in which each of the messengers appeared.
Although clad in various garments, clothed in differing habiliments, the body
of truth that they taught and teach is one." Wind of the Spirit (G.
dePurucker)

"A breeze is blowing through the human masses; one that
draws us all by a sort of living affinity towards the splendid realization of
some foreseen unity. Disputed, suspect and often scorned, unitary aspirations
in politics, in thought, in mysticism, arise everywhere around us; and because
their subject is not what is material and plural but what is spiritual and
common to all in each one of us, no force of routine or egoism seems capable of
arresting them; irresistibly they infiltrate and gradually dissolve old forms
and false barriers." The
Vision of the Past (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

"We believe that the future will be largely concerned
with rediscovering and building our connectedness to each other, to nature and
to the unseen spiritual realms, so that we become whole as individuals, as a
species, even as a planet." Alex Walker, former Trustee, Findhorn
Foundation Revelations: The Wisdom of the Ages(Paul Roland)

"He (Christ) termed himself the son of God, but took
care to assert repeatedly that they were all the children of God….in preaching
this, he repeated a doctrine taught ages earlier by Hermes, Plato, and other
philosophers." Isis Unveiled (Helena P. Blavatsky)

"According to all great masters, humankind's greatest
goal is to overcome the cosmic illusion that all forms are separate and
distinct….to experience ourselves and the universe as the totality of God's
Absolute Nature – the One, illumined throughout by cosmic light." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith
Cornell, Ph.D.)

"When new religions begin, they do not really invent
new terms or ideas ex nihilo, out of nothing. Instead they typically borrow
from other religions and from the culture around them, editing, adding,
synthesizing ideas, and adjusting language until new creative insights emerge
clearly." Introduction
to Theology (Thomas P. Rausch, editor)

"Christ is the inner man who is reached by the path of
self-knowledge, 'the kingdom of heaven within you.'" Collected Works (Carl Jung)

"The Cosmic Christ is the 'pattern that connects' and
connecting is what all wisdom is about, as the philosopher Gabriel Marcel
points out: 'The true function of the sage is surely the function of linking
together, of bringing into harmony….the sage is truly linked with the
universe.'" The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (Matthew Fox)

“The whole world is much more globally connected. That means
we're aware of our neighbors as being fully human just as they are, not as we
think they should be. We can't go backwards from this point. We've got to move
forward." Bette Edl, American Franciscan hermit Spiritual Genius, The Mastery of Life's Meaning (Winifred
Gallagher)

How religious liberals, particularly “professed" Christians, intend
to remain in this sea of universal spiritualism, have an indefinite swim
in the toxic waters and
still profess to be believers is a paradox so evident that even Hans Küng, founder
of project Weltethos (Global Ethic) admits the quandary.The Declaration Toward a
Global Ethic,ratified by the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, in 1993, was drafted
in advance in Tubingen, Germany, by Küng.The Introduction to the Declaration states:

Earth cannot
be changed for the better unless the consciousness of individuals is
changed first. We pledge to increase our awareness by disciplining our minds,
by meditation, by prayer, or by positive thinking. Without risk and a readiness
to sacrifice there can be no fundamental change in our situation. Therefore we
commit ourselves to this global ethic, to understanding one another, and to
socially beneficial, peace-fostering, and nature-friendly ways of life...(p.2)

We are persons who have committed ourselves to the precepts
and practices of the world’s religions. We confirm that there is already a
consensus among the religions which can be the basis for a global ethic—a minimalfundamental consensus concerning
bindingvalues, irrevocablestandards, and fundamental moral attitudes. (p.3)

By a global ethic we do not mean a global ideology
or a single unified religion beyond all existing religions, and certainly not
the domination of one religion over all others. By a global ethic we mean a fundamental
consensus on binding values, irrevocable standards, and personal
attitudes. Without such a fundamental consensus on an ethic, sooner or later
every community will be threatened by chaos or dictatorship, and individuals
will despair.(p.5)

We know that religions cannot solve the environmental,
economic, political, and social problems of Earth. However
they can provide what obviously cannot be attained by economic plans, political
programs, or legal regulations alone: A change in the inner orientation, the
whole mentality, the “hearts” of people, and a conversion from a false path to
a new orientation for life. Humankind urgently needs social and ecological
reforms, but it needs spiritual renewal just as urgently. As religious or
spiritual persons we commit ourselves to this task. The spiritual powers of the
religions can offer a fundamental sense of trust, a ground of meaning, ultimate
standards, and a spiritual home. Of course religions are credible only when
they eliminate those conflicts which spring from the religions themselves, dismantling
mutual arrogance, mistrust, prejudice, and even hostile images, and thus
demonstrate respect for the traditions, holy places, feasts, and rituals of
people who believe differently.(p.6)

These texts reveal a number of very
troubling issues.First, when
politicians (and this document is a political statement more than a divinely
anointed decree) focus heavily on what their proposal is not, this invariably should
be taken as “it will be” a global ideology
or a single unified religion beyond all existing religions, dominant over all others.Second, look at the intolerant language
used.Once this new
consciousness is arrived at by a majority of the population or by the
powerful, the agreement will be enforced with fundamentalist zeal as binding
and irrevocable laws; and where the values and standards do not mesh with one’s religious convictions, a change in inner orientation will take
place (your attitude will be dismantled),
a conversion from the false path to the
new (true) orientation will be undertaken.Third, how can unique and exclusive religious
identities, like Islam and Christianity, remain authentic in the midst of a
global ethic of standardization away from diversity. How can orthodoxy remain in a sweeping global trend; as Interspiritualist,
Bruce Schuman dreamt, of "alliances and partnerships, new
approaches to collaboration, building a unity of understanding and a unity of
spirit."

There appears to be little common ground between the liberal
and orthodox. The divide broadens as the
liberal-minded move “in the name of Christianity” to non-sectarian activism. However
you might wish to name the political and social motivation for the Global Ethic, advocacy for the declaration is done at the cost of purity and integrity of the Gospel witness. What "Christian" activism can be justified, when the desired actions can only be implemented by denying the
Gospel of Jesus Christ? For example, The United Church of Canada, under the
title “Mending the World,” put the matter of Christ’s divinity and purpose as
follows:

While the Church has gathered around
titles and creeds, it has resisted attempts to combine everything into a single
narrative, preferring instead to struggle with multiple presentations of
Jesus, each with its own particular emphases, and to learn from the
creative tension among them...

The nature of a representative is to
face two ways-to be capable of mediating the concern of one party to the other,
and vice versa. While Jesus' humanity serves to instruct, guide and motivate,
it is Jesus, representative of God, to whom the Church looks first for hope.
The tradition of the church affirms the divinity of Christ. Jesus is not
only the proclaimer of the reign of God, or the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith, but is, before all things, the One in whom we have faith. He is the one
that neither the crowds, nor the soldiers, nor even the grave, could hold.
Jesus is the one affirmed as God's child, the one through whom the world has
been reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:19).

We believe that in the person and
ministry of Jesus Christ none other than God was incarnate, overcoming
alienation and bringing about the reconciliation of the world to the divine
love and purpose. Out of this reconciliation comes the world's hope for
redemption, and its restoration to the order and beauty intended by God. As we
await this redemption, we share with all creatures a longing for renewal and
fulfillment, confident that God's own Spirit joins us in our sighs and our
hopes.

The Church is united in its
affirmation that God has reconciled the world. When we ask how this has been
done, tradition responds by saying that Jesus died to save us from our
sins. Just how his death and subsequent resurrection achieve this is a matter
of significant discussion and debate.

The "Christus victor" tradition
sees Jesus' suffering as a necessary prelude to triumph over evil. In his
victory is the promise and guarantee of our own. Our suffering is to be
considered temporary.

The
"Satisfaction" tradition argues that Jesus' suffering and
death was a payment for our sin, a sacrifice that met the requirements of God's
holiness and had the effect of negating the anger of God.

The
"Moral" tradition sees Jesus' suffering, not as payment for
sin, nor as precursor to victory, but as an expression of the love of God
towards humankind. Only such an act of self-sacrifice could soften the hardened
hearts of those who had turned their backs on God.

The
"Return" tradition sees Jesus, like the prophets, as the
teacher of return to the Reigning of God (see the story of the prodigal son),
and as the "pioneer and perfecter" (Heb.12:2) of human return to God
in the Way of the Cross. Followers of Jesus take up their cross and share in
Christ's sufferings, as Christ calls them to do (Matt. 10:38; 16:24, Mk. 8:34,
Lk. 9:23; 14:27), being reconciled to God and others as Christ lives in them
and they live in Christ.

Each
tradition, or "theory of atonement" as it is called,
has its strengths and liabilities. The
challenge before us is to find how the traditions that move us most,
move us also to live out what J.W. Grant has said:

'In an interrelated world and an
increasingly multicultural nation, it is vital that we should do our
utmost to understand and learn from one another. One can go further to speak of
a genuine ecumenism based on the unity of the human race that calls for the
greatest possible cooperation among people of good will belonging to all
faith communities and none, an ecumenism that demands especially high priority
in view of growing threats to the very survival of humanity. Christians who
find in Jesus the great agent of reconciliation have all the more reason
to commit themselves to this ecumenism.'[ii]

Now
the United Church, Canada’s prime example of manifest liberalism, is entitled
to hold whatever number of theories (traditions) about the divinity and purpose
of Jesus Christ they want and they may proselytize whatever beliefs they wish;
however, the problem comes when they claim at the same time to be “practicing
Christians” and “Canada’s largest Protestant mainline Christian denomination.”For all intents and purposes, this is how
those in other religions and the secular humanist world perceive them.When they give voice to their ideas, the
uninformed assume they speak the Gospel truth.And this situation amounts to deception.

Consider
the UCC argument that Canada is an interrelated,
multicultural nation, which demands a
new liberal and Christian ecumenical response.Is the Christian experience today radically different than for the Early
Church?Was first century Rome significantly
less multi-cultural, less religiously diverse than Toronto is today?Historian Henry Chadwick records that Christian
missionaries well into the third century were not operating in a metaphysical
vacuum.And church leaders were constantly
challenged to set the orthodox boundaries for censure of prohibited intellectual
deviation. Chadwick described the era:

The moment they moved outside of the ambit of
synagogues of the Jewish dispersion and their loosely attached Gentile
adherents, the missionaries were in a twilight world of pagan syncretism,
magic, and astrology. The pagan world was quite accustomed to myths of great
heroes elevated to divine rank. Nonetheless they were amazed at the
extraordinary claim that the divine redeemer of the Christian story had lately
been born of a woman in Judea, had been crucified under Pontius Pilate, had
risen again, and at last would judge the world.[iii]

Indeed, orthodoxy,
the English equivalent of Greek orthodoxia
(from orthos, “right,” and doxia, “opinion”) means right belief, as
opposed to heresy or heterodoxy. The
word expresses the idea that certain statements accurately embody the revealed
truth content of Christianity, and are therefore in their own nature normative
for the universal church. This idea is
rooted in the New Testament insistence that the Gospel has a specific factual
and theological content and that no fellowship exists between those who accept
the apostolic standard of Christological teaching and those who deny it. The
idea of orthodoxy became important in the Church in and after the second
century, through conflict with Paganism and most important the threat from Gnosticism. The Apostle Paul, for example, wrote:

Now, brothers, I
want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on
which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold
firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

As much as global
ecumenists wish everyone to believe that our so-called “global village” with its contemporary tribulations urgently demands an ecumenical imperative,
this is neither scripturally or historically acceptable.As the "multi-cultural center" for Europe and regions of Africa and the Middle East, Rome at
the time of the Early Church cried out for righting injustice, reducing
violence, feeding and housing the poor, and cleaning-up the filthy ecological
conditions of the city.Not unlike
ecumenical liberalism today, the Romans had a pragmatic attitude to
religion, which explains why they had
difficulty taking to the idea of a single, all-seeing, all-powerful god in
Jesus Christ. In so far as the Romans
had a religion of their own, it was not based on any central belief, but on a
mixture of fragmented rituals, taboos, superstitions, and traditions
which they collected over the years from a number of sources. To the Romans, religion was less a spiritual
experience than a contractual relationship between mankind and the forces which
were believed to control people's existence and well-being. The result was a state cult exercising significant influence on political and military
events, and a private affair, in which the head
of the family oversaw the domestic rituals and prayers in the same way as the
representatives of the people performed the public ceremonials.[iv]

Given the similar living circumstances of the Early Church, why didn't this result in a Christian inter-faith ecumenical movement? A poignant answer lies in examining the writings
of the third century Christian apologist Origen. He wrote in reply to the work of a pagan named
Celsus, who had written The True Doctrine.The identity of Celsus is uncertain, but Origen knew that the man
had been dead a long time and that Celsus was an Epicurean, flourishing in the
latter half of the second century. Historian
Henry Chadwick says, “to call a person an
Epicurean, from a Christian perspective was symbolic of the modern materialist, infidel or hedonist.”[v]Moreover, according to Chadwick,
Origen was frequently incensed that Celsus confused the tenets of orthodox
Christianity with beliefs held by Gnostic
sects.[vi]

The non-believer’s
slander was mostly directed at denying the divinity of the of Jesus Christ. How could a poor Jew be elevated to
monotheistic worship? How could Christ be born of a virgin? The miracles He
preformed were those of a magician. His apparent inability to save Himself from
crucifixion discredits His claim to divinity. Implicit in his premise is the contemporary
liberal notion that humankind will not be held morally accountable on an
individual basis, that there is no devil promoting evil, and that there is no
need for a Savior or Redeemer.Origen
wrote of his rival:

Celsus has little to say for Christian monotheism:

As all pagans
knew, Moses was an expert magician. And so, the goat herds and shepherds who
followed Moses as their leader were deluded by clumsy deceits into thinking
that there was only one God called the Most High…The Christians are even worse.
They reject the worship of daemons [other deities] and quote the saying of
Jesus, ‘No man can serve two masters.’

[Christianity
is]…a rebellious utterance of people who wall themselves off and break away
from the rest of mankind. What is more, the fantastic respect shown by the
Christians for this Jew who was crucified a few years back shows just how
seriously they take all their talk about serving one master. If these men
worshipped no other God but one, perhaps they would have had a valid argument
against the others. But in fact they worship to an extravagant degree this man
who appeared recently, and yet think it is not inconsistent with monotheism.162

Let the Christians
return to take their stand upon the old paths and abandon this newly invented
absurdity of worshipping a Jew recently crucified in disgraceful circumstances.
Let them return to the old polytheism, to the customs of their fathers.
Christianity is a dangerous modern innovation and if not checked it will be a
disaster for the Roman Empire.[vii]

Can the liberal-minded not see that an ardent faith
consisting of discriminating membership, exclusive worship,
uncompromising witness, and fantastic
exaltation of the name, person and Gospel of Jesus Christ did more to arrest
the tribulations and evils of Roman
society in that period than any alternative human endeavour? Moreover, all was done without any
“social-political organization;” not one public placard, not one political rally. Of course many of these fundamentalists were martyrs (not suicide bombers!), but persecuted
believers who would rather die than deny the name of Jesus Christ.

Which is likely to bear more fruit, a well
organized global inter-faith and non-sectarian ecumenical endeavour that tacitly, if not
explicitly denies that Jesus Christ is KING
OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS or localized humanitarian acts done
by fewer people but all of them God’s elect working and witnessing to exalt and
magnify His Son?

Do not fall into the trap of thinking inter-faith religious
ceremony is anything other than pandering to overarching political and secular
humanist aims. The Holy Spirit is not
calling Christians into global ecumenism.
The entire revelation of scripture witnesses against the notion. Judith Cornell is not drawing from the wisdom
and authority of Jesus Christ, the Torah or the Koran when she writes:

"According to all great masters, humankind's greatest
goal is to overcome the cosmic illusion that all forms are separate and
distinct….to experience ourselves and the universe as the totality of God's
Absolute Nature – the One, illumined throughout by cosmic light." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith
Cornell, Ph.D.)

And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said
unto him, Art thou he that
troubleth Israel?And he answered, I
have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have
forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets
of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred,
which eat at Jezebel’s table.So Ahab
sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto
mount Carmel.And Elijah came unto all
the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people
answered him not a word.

Then said
Elijah unto the people, I, even
I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and
let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other
bullock, and lay it on wood,
and put no fire under:And call ye on the name of your gods,
and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire,
let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose
you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are
many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal
from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that
answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah
mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is
a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must
be awaked.And they cried aloud, and cut
themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed
out upon them.And it came to pass, when
midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there
was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

And Elijah said unto all the people, Come
near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar
of the LORD that was broken
down.And Elijah took twelve stones,
according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word
of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:And with the stones he built an altar in the
name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would
contain two measures of seed.And he put
the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four
barrels with water, and pour it
on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.And he said, Do it the
second time. And they did it
the second time. And he said, Do it
the third time. And they did it
the third time.And the water ran round
about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.And it came to pass
at the time of the offering of
the evening sacrifice, that
Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of
Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that
I have done all these things at thy word.Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again.Then the fire of the LORD
fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the
dust, and licked up the water that was
in the trench.And when all the people
saw it, they fell on their
faces: and they said, The LORD, he is
the God; the LORD, he is the
God.And Elijah said unto them, Take the
prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought
them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

In 2001, the Royal Military College held a colours parade. The regulation in the Canadian Forces stated that the consecration of
colours had to be carried out by a revered religious figure, traditionally a Christian. And that year the national demographics still affirmed that the revered
religious figure should be a Christian minister, pastor or priest. 2001 happened to be the year for a national
census:[viii]

Religion

Number of Adherents

Population
Percentage

Christian

28,665,535

67.2

No Religion

4,796,325

16.2

Pagan(includes Wicca and United Church*)

2,860,205

9.7

Muslim

579,640

2.0

Jewish

329,995

1.1

Buddhist

300,345

1.0

Hindu

297,200

1.0

Sikh

278,410

0.9

Jehovah’s Witness

154,750

0.5

Mormon

101,805

0.3

Aboriginal Spirituality

29,820

0.1

Zoroastrian

6,000

0.03

Note:
The adherents to the United Church have been included under pagan religion in
accordance with previous assessments made by well qualified and experienced
ministers within the denomination.

UCC
Rev. Dr. Donald Faris writes for the Community of Concern within the UCC: “With
the approval of gay, lesbian, and bisexual marriage - the foolhardy blessing of
behavior that God condemns - the paganization of the United Church is almost
complete.”[ix]

UCC Rev. Dr.
Allen Churchill writes: “Our own United Church is in a state of free
fall…76% of our theological professors think it is not important to affirm
Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.”[x]

However, in 2001, the decision was taken that since
the Royal Military College of Canada reflects Canadian society by its mosaic of
different ethnic groups, cultures and faith traditions it was necessary
for this celebration to have a “multi
faith spirit.” In the Act of Consecration, the Chaplain
General referred to this “multi faith spirit” as the“Sacred
Source of All Life.”And the
Act of Dedication opened with: "In
the service of our country and all that in our Traditions, we honor as
sacred."Are these not ecumenical terms taken from
the newly developed politically correct inter-faith lexicon?Are these unbiblical terms not void of spiritual
unction, bereft of holy anointing?If,
like the Baal worshippers, the ecumenists call upon the Sacred Source of All Lifefrom morning even until noon, saying, O Sacred
Source of All Life, hear us, will this
matter? Can the celebration of liberal ecumenism
result in anything other than impoverished ritual; bankrupt unction?

Where is the scripture to
support Christians worshipping, praying, and fellowshipping with others? The
second century Epicurean Celsus was incensed by the “rebellious
utterance of people who wall themselves off and break away from the rest of
mankind.”Why did they do this other than for purity of fellowship and freedom to
utterly glorify and magnify the King of Kings?In this multifaith colours parade, the name of Jesus Christ is
mentioned in one of ten prayers offered.The prayer to the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, at that moment
representing 28,665,535 Canadians, held no special place beyond that of
the 6,000 Zoroastrians in Canada. Such
undignified and mocking treatment of the Son of God cannot happen without
consequence. The Christ, who will return
to judge the quick and the dead must surely be unimpressed (Revelation
19:11-16). One can only speculate why
the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormons were not represented. Perhaps they were invited and declined! And what of the Baha'i, Raelians, andThe Wiccan Church
of Canada?[Note that the Ontario Multifaith Council, a
not-for-profit agency paid for by the Provincial Government to be an interface with
Ontario chaplains, has Wicca membership.]

The point for Christians is not that Canadians
should be restricted in what they choose to believe; not at all, the issue
centers on the fundamental theological or spiritual incompatibility of
multifaith religious celebration. On the
hill of Ares (Greek god of thunder and war) in Athens (a metropolis of a myriad
of religious views), the Apostle Paul declared his view on other so-called
“faith traditions”:

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things ye are too superstitious. For
as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him
declare I unto you. God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as
though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all
things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his
offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or
silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead (Acts 17:22-31).

Paul is not proclaiming a Gospel of cheap
grace where all are saved. He is not
making provision for salvation by any means other than the accepted sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. He would not
agree with the position of religious liberals, global ecumenicals or universal
spiritualists like Marianne Williamson:

"The conversion to Christ need not entail a conversion
to the Christian religion. The word is a symbol for the Child of God within us,
our true identity and a space of remembrance of all that is divine. To be His
disciple is to take on the mantle of His ministry by refusing to acknowledge
the ultimate reality of any walls that divide us." The Gift of Change, Spiritual Guidance for a
Radically New Life (Marianne Williamson)

As much as religious liberals, so-called “ecumenical
Christians,” would like to unite the paths taken by the great world religions
this is not theologically feasible.Admit it or not, the following interfaith event is a travesty of
Christian (and Islamic) belief.Raheel Raza of the Canadian
Council of Muslim Women writes of her experience at the 4th
Parliament of World Religions:

I had just finished
performing my Jum’a namaz (Friday prayers) on the shores of the Mediterranean
sea and as I looked around me, I was filled with peace and the wonder of being
here a long way from my native Pakistan and my adopted home,
Canada. I was in Barcelona to attend the 4th Parliament of World
Religions with two friends and partners in interfaith - Reverend
Dr. Karen Hamilton, a practicing Christian [United Church
of Canada], and Barbara Siddiqui, born in Midland as a Christian and
now a practicing Muslim.

It was
an unusual situation in many ways. Two white women wearing shalwar qameez
were praying with me and a host of diverse Muslims, in a VIP tent set up by the
Sikh community of Birmingham, England. We were joined by local media keen to see
how-Muslims-pray (thank God men and women prayed together!). However they
were thoroughly confused when a turbaned Sikh and some non Muslims came and
joined the prayer. This was interfaith at it’s best . Karen reminded me of the
book both of us have just read and discussed: "The Dignity of
Difference", by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in which he describes the differences
of the world - differences of religion, ethnicity, language and belief as part
of God's particular and intentional plan. “The differences of our
world reflect and mirror the truth that we are made in the image of the God who
is infinitely various and who delights in variety” says Karen. The
ad-hoc Imam said in his sermon “Humanity is one Community” and certainly at
this point in time, anyone would agree.[xii]

According to Abdul Saleeb, a former Muslim, and Dr. Norman
L. Geisler, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary, Christianity and Islam
are fundamentally contradictory worldviews.In their essay “Undersdtanding
and Reaching Muslims,” they write: (various extracts)

Islam embraces a rigid form of monotheism that
confesses only one God whose name is Allah (the Arabic word for “God”). The
Qu’ran repeatedly claims that Allah has no “partners.” He is one and only one
person. Sura 112declares his “Unity”:
“Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begetteth
not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him.” No plurality
within God’s unity is tolerated, particularly the Christian concept of a
Trinity (Sura 4:171). God is an absolute singularity, not a compound unity. Any
denial of his absolute unity is considered an unpardonable sin (4:48).

It
is noteworthy that Jesus is listed as a prophet in Islam, but Muslims deny that
Jesus is the Son of God. To affirm Christ is God is considered blasphemous.
Sura 5:75 reads: “Christ the son of Mary was no more than an Apostle.” Further,
“it is not fitting to (the majesty of) God that He should beget a son” (Sura
19:35). Many Muslims believe Christians embrace a Trinity that resulted from a
sexual union between God the Father and Mary, by which Jesus was born.

Most important to Islamic belief about prophets is
that Muhammad is the last of the prophets, although they claim he is not
superior to the other prophets, being a mere man and mouthpiece of God like the
others. Muslims, however, attribute several unique features to Muhammad. He is
considered the sum of all the rophets before him, along with being the last of
the prophets. God’s revelation to humankind ceased with him. Finally, he alone
left behind these revelations in a Holy Book, the Qur’an, which Muslims
consider to be the uncorrupted words of God.

The final judgment is carried out by the means of a
scale (mizan), which is used to
balance the individual’s good deeds against his or her bad deeds. “Then those
whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy, — They will attain salvation: but those
whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls; in Hell will
they abide” (Sura 23:102–3).[xiii]

Saleeb and Geisler summarized the Muslim view of
Christ:

JESUS IN
THE QUR’AN

MUHAMMAD IN THE QUR’AN

Sinless

Virgin born

Called
“Messiah”

Called
“Word of God”

Performed
miracles

Bodily ascended to heaven

Sinful

Not virgin born

Not called “Messiah”

Not called “Word of God”

Refused to perform
miracles

Did not
bodily ascend to heaven

Religious liberals and “Christian” global
ecumenists have no guilty conscience worshipping with Muslims, Sikhs,
Buddhists because they hold a downgraded
their view of Christ. Unlike Christian martyrs
in Roman times, they are willing to effectively deny Christ. Their day-to-day operating premise, if not their
fully disclosed public profession of faith, is more in line with the Qur’an
than the Holy Bible.

We need to return briefly to the Declaration
Toward a Global Ethic,
ratified by the Parliament of Religions in 1993.As the cliché goes “the devil is in
the details.”Consider the condemnations madein
the Declaration:

We condemn the abuses of Earth’s
ecosystems

We condemn the poverty that
stifles life’s potential

We condemn the social disarray
of the nation’s and the disregard for justice

Who can be against pollution, poverty and social
injustice?The three ills are absolutes
of human history.The difficulty in this
Global Ethic arises from the
proclamation of “irrevocable directives.”In brief the Declaration goes on to affirm that a common set of
core values is found in the teachings of the religions, and that these should form
the basis for a global ethic:

We are committed to a culture of
non-violence and respect for life

We are committed to just
economic order

We are committed to a culture
oftolerance and a life of truthfulness

We are committed to a culture of
equal rights and partnership between men and women

At risk of over using the tsunami
metaphor, there is an ironic huge second wave of non-spiritual advice also
looming over the horizon that draws much of its energy from the global
ecumenical movement.This is paradoxical,
because the Declaration Toward a Global
Ethic states We know that
religions cannot solve the environmental, economic, political, and social
problems of Earth.Nonetheless, liberal ecumenists declare the urgency of the global situation
demands an unprecedented vision of unity
and political activism amongst all religions and the creation of an
unprecedented set of national and global organizations
to take on “temporal” issues, presumably with united “religious” zeal.Under the title Mending the World, The United
Church put the matter in these terms:

The ecumenical imperative calls
us to participate in this work of reconciliation and healing in partnership
with any and all who are prepared to work with us. This imperative
proceeds out of the conviction that solutions to the challenges posed by
ongoing political conflict, racism, poverty, and environmental degradation,
require the assembled resources of a broad partnership among religious
communities and secular organizations. No one religious community or group can
accomplish the task alone. This imperative also proceeds out of a belief
that God has provided the Christian community with sufficient theological
motivations to engage in such work and partnership. Commandments, such as "the golden rule," and
convictions, such as our own tradition's affirmation that "God is
creatively and redemptively at work in the religious life of all mankind
[sic]," are but two of many theological reasons to move in this direction.
More than anything else, we turn to the story of Jesus - the accounts of his
life, the impact of the proclamation of his resurrection, and the Church's
reflection on the meaning of both- for the content of what God's reconciling
work is about, and for guidance in regard to our role in it.[xiv]

No need to continue to highlight the counterfeit “Christian”
theology embedded in this liberal notion of a global or national ecumenical
imperative.If one cannot, at this
stage, appreciate the exclusive discriminatory nature of the light of Jesus Christ it is because one
is somehow blinded (II Corinthians 4:2-6).Let us look instead at the effort placed by these ecumenists in
partnering with religious communities and secular
organizations over evangelizing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Moreover, let us discover the biased
left-wing and feminist agenda of these religious liberals through an analysis
of the issues they choose to advance and those they have chosen to not
engage.The agencies in the following list
have been obtained from the United Church website under the title “Ecumenical and Coalition Partners (Canada).” The agencies constitute what will be shown to be a predominantly left-leaning and religiously liberal coalition:

A cursory
study of the first thirteen authors published on the CCPA Monitor reveals a far-reaching leftist agenda
in the organization.The CCPA Federal Budget 2008 Fact Sheetonly serves to reinforce this conclusion.

We are a Christian
agency through which Canadian churches reflect and work together on global
mission and ministry issues, and are challenged to prophetic witness through
programs of education and dialogue. Our members are the Anglican Church of
Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church in
Canada, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, the Scarboro Missions, and the United Church of Canada. We also work
directly with other denominations, agencies, and individuals from Canada and
the United States of America.

Scarboro Missions: On a
planet-wide scale we are now witnessing the convergence of two international
movements – interfaith dialogue and social justice. People active in both
movements are realizing that they can create a better world by cooperating with
one another. In 1997, this extraordinary document linking social justice to
interfaith dialogue was produced and signed by 22 faith communities in
Edmonton, Alberta.Declaration of
Interdependence: WE, as faith group representatives, declare our
interdependence with those who are living in poverty in our local community as
well as in the world community. WE DECLARE that we are all united in the
spirit of one God, and that we are called to uphold the spirit of universal
interdependence with our sisters and brothers of all faiths.

...We write also deeply conscious of your own
faith and commitment as a Christian, and pledge to you our prayers as you
discern the future direction of Canada’s role during the current conflict and
the hoped for peace which must surely someday follow. At the May 2007 meeting of our Governing Board
in Toronto, we spent considerable – and prayerful – time as Christian leaders
seeking to discern what word we might offer to you. We found ourselves deeply mindful of scriptural
imperatives. We remember God’s word
to the prophet Micah that we are to “do justice, love kindness and walk
humbly with our God.” We remember too, that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was
given not as good advice but as a directive for living according to God’s
will. This leads us to three points which we offer to you for your
consideration in the midst of many voices and many priorities.

First, the Canadian Council of Churches
believes that the principal objective of our engagement in Afghanistan must be
peace for the people of Afghanistan rather than the forwarding of a war on
terror.

Second, we believe that a political solution
for reconciliation must be discerned, and that all diplomatic means available
must be employed to achieve that end, including “second track diplomacy”
engaging civil society and religious networks.

Third, we believe that the valiant effort of
Canadian troops must be directed in the first instance to the protection of
lives and the preservation of civilian infrastructure in the manner prescribed
by the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

We recognize how challenging such goals will
be to implement, but have every confidence that with good will, these quintessentially
Canadian approaches to strife will prevail. With our thanks for your attention to this
letter, we look forward to your response. With our prayerfully best wishes, we
remain, Your sisters and brothers in Christ . . . (signed) The Rev. Dr. James Christie, President; The Rev. Dr.
Karen Hamilton, General Secretary [My underline, see elaborative letter dated 16 August 2007]

The following are selected CCC Prayers for Peace in Afghanistan:
(click herefor all represented “traditions”)

The Rev. Ian McDonald, The
Presbyterian Church in Canada

Eternal Spirit of the
universe, our help in ages past and our only hope for years to come: in our
gathering this day, we are mindful of those whose lives are uprooted,
frustrated, twisted, dehumanized and lost in the shuffle. We ask you to show us
a vision of a world at peace, rather than a world engaged in constant struggle
for power and prominence. Project onto the screen of our minds structures of
governing at local, national and international levels, where sensitivity to
human needs and the well being of all replaces the concept of war as a great
game, with people’s lives to be lost like pawns for meaningless so called
victories.

The Right Rev. David
Guiliano, Moderator, The United Church of Canada

Holy One,

we know that we are not alone,

we live in your world.

We know that you call each of us

to love and serve others,

to seek justice and resist evil.

We know that each of us carries within our
self your vision

of all creation healed and restored

because we are partners with You in caring
for your creation.

* a moment of silence*

We pray now for the land and people of
Afghanistan and for us all.

* a moment of silence*

Through your Wisdom and Grace,

empower us to work together with the Afghani
peoples

until Afghanistan is a nation

where hearts are comforted and gifts, shared
for the good of all;

where resistance is strengthened against
forces that exploit

and marginalise and fierce love overcomes
violence.

* a moment of silence*

We know not only your promise but the price
you paid

for the world’s brokenness.

Help us own our part in Afghanistan’s
brokenness by

embracing the present,

embodying hope

loving our enemies,

caring for the earth,

choosing life.

We rightfully place our hope in you to guide
Afghanistan

through us and the people there

into wholeness, union and integration.

* a moment of silence*

We know in life, in death and in life beyond
death,

You are with us

we are not alone.

New Life is possible for Afghanistan.

Thank-you, O Holy One.
Amen.

The Very Rev. Father
Estephanos, Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch

Our Heavenly Father, we
thank you for your mercy and everlasting love. We thank you that through our
Lord Jesus Christ we are able to come boldly to your presence and have comfort
and peace. We appeal to You to awaken the longing for a peace in all those who
are filled with hatred for others because of race or religion, and are intent
on destroying through war. We pray, our Lord God, for all those who are
experiencing war, especially for all victims and those in the struggle in
Afghanistan. Show the people in Afghanistan your love through your servants
there. Save and deliver them, O Guardian of all, from all difficulty and
chastisement, from all persecution and plague, from all calamity and captivity,
from all devastation and famine, from all war and plunder and from all blows
and bloodshed of peoples alien to Your worship. Be, O Lord, a fortress to every
city, country and nation that takes refuge in You. Do not be silent, O Lord,
about the lamenting of the miserable, the wailing of the poor, the weakening of
the oppressed and the torment of the weary. Guide the rulers by your powerful
and almighty right hand. Grant peace, O Lord, to the nations, drive away from
them local and foreign wars that they may lead a tranquil life and protect them
with the sign of Your victorious Cross. Extinguish every dispute. Banish all
disagreement. You are our peace and to You we ascribe glory. In the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit we pray, now and forever more. Amen.

Note: CCC claims to represent 85% of the
Christians in Canada, "21
denominations" from the Anglican, Protestant, Roman Catholic,
Evangelical, Free Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox traditions.[xv]Consider the relationship of the CCC to WFM,
WCRP and PWR:

Board of Directors – Rev. Bill Jay, United Church.Rev. Jay is a founding member of the
Ecumenical Health Care Network of the Canadian Council of Churches.The 16
person Board also has representatives from:

On May 6, 2008 CCJC
and the John Howard Society of Canada
co-hosted a public forum(click video)
featuring Marc Mauer, Executive Director of the Washington, D.C. Sentencing Project. Mauer is the author
of Race to Incarcerate, in which he explains how more incarceration
may actually cause crime. He questioned why
Canada wants to imitate criminal justice policies that have failed in the
United States.

Note: The Tackling
Violent Crime Act is composed of the key elements of five
criminal law bills.By introducing this
comprehensive bill, the Harper Government remains committed to ensuring key
reforms to Canada’s criminal justice system move swiftly through the
legislative process to become law and to better protect Canadians from those
who commit serious and violent crimes. See The
Sentencing Project's Racist, Criminal Agenda for a critique
of the liberal agenda behind the movement.The
Sentencing Project is a criminal justice research and advocacy organization out
of Washington, D.C., that seeks to promote a criminal lenience agenda by
advocating for the rights of convicts, through such policy changes as: shorter
jail sentences, alternatives to incarceration, and most importantly, the right for felons
to vote.

Common Frontiers grew out of the
experience gained by Canadian organizations in confronting the Free Trade
agenda. It was born out of the popular opposition movement to the Canada-U.S.
Free Trade Agreement and the recognition that this opposition must not only
cooperate across sectors nationally but also across borders. Common Frontiers
went on to play an important strategic role in the struggle against NAFTA and
is now helping to build the opposition to the Free Trade Area in the Americas
(FTAA).Active Canadian groups
include:

Americas Policy Group of Canadian Council for International
Cooperation (APG)

Canadian
Auto Workers (CAW)
Canadian Federation of Students (CFS)
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada(CEP)
Council of Canadians
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Maquila Solidarity Network
Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)
Sierra Club of Canada
Steelworkers Humanity Fund (SHF)
United Church of Canada - Latin American and Caribbean Division

"The (Romanow) Commission is correct in its observation that this
current discussion about health care is an ethical one. From our perspective,
this discussion is fundamentally about what form of justice will prevail as we
wrestle with who we are, what we owe each other as citizens and neighbours, and
what legacy we will leave for future generations of people in Canada." (full article )

"In a world of corporate
giants, and neo-conservative political obsession with tax cuts, it seems even
health, as a basic human necessity, can no longer be taken for granted. The
harsh reality is that there are those who would want to buy and sell health as
a commodity, as something accessible to the highest bidder, giving priority to
those with the ability and means to pay...If you have the money why, in the name of
God, shouldn’t you be able to get ahead of the line, faster and better than the
rest. I say in the name of God because many defenders of the two-tier
accessibility are Christians. Need we be reminded that Stockwell Day is a
devout Christian believer.So, when
Christians enter into the fray of public verses private debate these days, we
do so not only on the basis of economic reason. We do so discerning what it
means to be faithful and what it means to be unfaithful to the Spirit God who
created us, and who came in Christ that we may have life and have it
abundantly.” (full article )

Ernie Regehr is Co-Founder of Project Ploughshares,
former Commissioner of the World Council of Churches Commission on
International Affairs, a fellow at the Centre for International Governance
Innovation.In an article, titled
“The new
peace movement,” for the National
Post (August 20, 2008), renowned historian J.L. Granatsteinsaid of Regehr`s Project Ploughshares
and the new peace movement:

“The peace movement in Canada was very effective 20 or
30 years ago. Consider Project Ploughshares, an ecumenical agency of the
Canadian Council of Churches, founded in 1976. Its co-founder and former
executive director, Ernie Regehr, was hugely knowledgeable. He was respected by
parliamentarians and the Ottawa bureaucrats, and also by those who were not
“peace” supporters. Regehr knew his stuff; he wrote and lobbied hard, and he
didn’t twist facts to make a case. .... But that was then. Today’s peace
movement is a curious amalgam of left-wing groups.” [My underline]

WICCMothers Day StatementMay 2006:“Women must work hard to
bring about a world where their children will not have to fear sexual violence,
racism, poverty, discrimination and exclusion...While more fathers have been
getting involved, women still do the lion’s share of the work of caring for
children and the home. Most mothers do a double day’s work and pay a
disproportionate price for raising children. Motherhood often leads to
impoverishment for women, to overwork, exhaustion and guilt. All mothers
should freely choose to give life. All children should be wanted
children. No mother should have to interrupt a pregnancy because she is too
poor or because she lacks social or economic support.Childbirth is one of the most expensive times
in a woman’s life, yet that is when she has the least capacity to earn a
living. Mothers should be respected and supported. They need more government
support and better income replacement, so they are not forced to depend on
other family members for basic income security. Women with children must remain
strong and autonomous and never be forced by economic necessity to remain with
an abusive partner.”

WICC supports regional and national gatherings, such as the
"Women Doing Theology in Canada" conferences in Winnipeg in 2002 and
in Montreal in 2005, enabling women to come together to explore their
spirituality and their faith. Under the website title "Women Doing Theology
– Making Waves" is a feminist article for the WICC Groundswell written byDr.
Gail Allan titled "Weaving our theologies together. "Dr. Gail Allan did her Doctorate of
Theology on the ongoing work of the Decade of Churches in Solidarity with
Women. She is the United Church,
Interfaith – Interchurch Program Officer and a member on the Canadian Council
of Churches Commission of Faith and Witness.She writes:

"Women have long sought
space to speak of our relationships to the Divine in the context of the
histories and struggles, visions and values, differences and connections that
constitute the specificity of our life in Canada...We were women...meeting
across differences of language, race, culture, sexual orientation, faith
tradition, regional and global definitions of “home.”... We spoke of the need
for deconstruction and reconstruction of theologies bearing the legacies of
colonialism, racism and heterosexist privilege, of moving beyond the
hierarchical dualisms which have shaped our patterns of thought and ways of
life. These were named as theologies of transformation, courage, integration,
diversity, interaction, healing and reconciliation – inviting a “radical
inclusion” that honours personal and political, theory and praxis, voices
from the margins and the complexity of the contexts we represent. Multiple,
too, are our modes of doing theology: in storytelling, art and ritual, in new,
cross-textual readings of scripture and tradition, in historical and social
analysis, we seek “ongoing communal revelation.” “Energized, graced, formed and
awakened” by the stories shared, we affirmed that theology is created in
“being and doing,” together weaving webs of fragility and strength which
hold in creative tension connection and disruption, brokenness and reconciliation." [My
underline]

“We envision the
transformation of economic and political structures in ways that enable the
‘fullness of life for all.’”

“We affirm our understanding of “feminist” as a term that connotes
awareness of and sensitivity to contextual realities where women, their
perspectives, their labour, and their bodies are often devalued and exploited
by the patriarchal ideology of domination and control. Women are the primary
victims of poverty, war and environmental degradation. ”

“We adopt an understanding of “empire” that is consistent with the
understanding that emerged from the WARC Accra general Council (2004). “We
perceive that the world today lives under the shadow of an oppressive empire.
By this we mean the gathered power of pervasive economic and political forces
throughout the globe that reinforce the division between the rich and the
poor.”

“By empire we mean the convergence of economic, political, religious,
cultural, geographic and military imperial interests, systems, and networks for
the purpose of amassing political power and control over resources. Empire
crosses all boundaries, disregards international law, subordinates
nation-states, strips and reconstructs identities, subverts cultures, and
marginalizes or co-opt religious communities. It forces the flow of wealth and
power from vulnerable countries and communities to the powerful.”

“We are aware that patriarchy and empire thrive upon and are sustained
by systems of hierarchy, domination and control. Both are intrinsic to sexism,
racism, xenophobia, homophobia, casteism and other forms of intolerance.
Patriarchal structures and norms ascribe women subordinate status in society.
These structures and norms are pivotal to the workings of globalisation and
empire.” The (WARC) Ecumenical Faith Stance Against Global Empire For A
Liberated Earth Community, (Manila 2006) states that ‘Patriarchy and empire are
inextricability interwoven…. The gender ideology of patriarchy is pivotal in
all domination hierarchies in human society and in the communities of all
living beings. These hierarchies are driven by, and express and reinforce the
gender ideology, as well as the racist ideology of global white power and the
class ideology of transnational corporate elite. Manifested in all spheres of
life, these ideologies converge and become especially visible in the global
market and the geopolitics of the global empire.’”

“We need to nurture spirituality of justice and righteousness that
connects us to the heart of God, with all people (of various faiths) and with
all of creation. The biblical witness is clear that God abhors economic
injustice, ecological distortion, and imperialistic domination, globally, in
any society, at all times and by whomever. What God requires is that justice
roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos
5:24).”

“Moved by the justice-filled Spirit of God, we are urged to discern the signs
of the times, and to name institutions and systems of injustice that obstruct
God’s promise of life for all. We must act in solidarity in political,
ecclesiastical, collective and individual ways. Failure to do so is to act in
collaboration with the violence of the current order, standing against Isaiah’s
vision of the peaceful coexistence of the lion and the lamb and Jesus’ vision
of abundant life (Isaiah 65:25, John 10:10).”

“U.S. bases in nearly 132 of 190 UN nations are located in every
continent except Antarctica. Military bases corrupt the local economy and their
toxic wastes pollute the land, air and water. Women and girls in communities
around military bases face increased likelihood of rape and physical abuse and
often find prostitution, with its attendant risk of HIV and AIDS, as the only
option for supporting their families.”

“As feminist theologians, we draw on multiple sources as we develop our
theological response to the moral, spiritual, and social crisis we have
identified in our discourse on the economy, ecology, and empire. Our feminist
hermeneutical approach begins by engaging the ways in which current structures,
systems and values of empire and globalization collude to deny people of God’s
vision for fullness of life for them.”

“We commit to continue creating theologies that articulate the nexus of
economy, ecology and empire and challenge churches and individuals to be active
agents of change and catalysts for the transformation of the neoliberal
economic system.”

“We commit to dialogue with people of different faiths for justice and
care of the earth.”

“We commit to adopt feminist perspectives to challenge the structures of the
global economy (such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World
Trade Organisation) whose neoliberal policies work against democratic processes
and undermine state sovereignty.”

“We commit to support the development of alternative sustainable economic
models (e.g. collectivism, barter, subsistence, gifting).”

The Division of World Outreach (DWO) of The United Church of Canada is
committed to promoting the five aims of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in
Solidarity with Women in Church and Society: to empower women to challenge
oppressive structures in the global community, their country and their church;
to affirm, through shared leadership and decision making, the decisive
contribution of women in churches and communities; to give visibility to
women's perspectives and actions in the work and struggles for justice, peace
and the integrity of creation; to enable the churches to free themselves from
racism, sexism, and classism and from teachings and practices that discriminate
against women; To encourage the churches to take action in solidarity with
women.

KAIROS believes that climate change is both a faith
issue and a justice issue as Christians witness the wholesale devastation of
God’s creation and the global inequity that drives our unsustainable,
fossil-fuel lifestyles. KAIROS is calling on the Canadian government to:

Stop subsidizing oil companies

Invest in sustainable, renewable energy

Promote energy conservation

Put a cap on carbon emissions

Collect fees from carbon polluters to be
reinvested in a green economy

Will your party commit to the immediate ending of
subsidies to oil companies and redirect these funds to energy conservation and
sustainable, renewable energy?

KAIROS
is calling for binding legislation that would hold Canadian companies to
account in their overseas operations. Voluntary measures (i.e. self-policing by
the industry) have failed to curb the worst abuses. International human rights
and environmental standards must become the benchmark for Canadian companies –
wherever they operate in the world. And communities affected by Canadian-led
extractive projects must be granted access to the Canadian justice system to
seek redress when harmed.

Question for the candidates:

If elected, will your party introduce legislation to
hold Canadian companies accountable when they are found to be complicit in
human rights abuses or serious environmental damage in developing countries?

KAIROS
is appealing to the Canadian government to establish a national poverty
reduction strategy and to create a plan with defined measures and targets for
the next five years. KAIROS maintains that a national poverty plan must be
integrated with other government policies so that an improvement in one area is
not cancelled out by cutbacks in another. A national housing strategy is also a
key component of national poverty plan and would ensure affordable housing
programs will be expanded.

Question for candidates:

Do you support adopting a national, integrated plan
to eliminate poverty in Canada, including a clear commitment to achieving
specific measures and targets over the next 5 years?

On
8 April 2008 the House of Commons in Canada adopted a Motion calling on the
Government of Canada to “endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples …and that Parliament and Government of Canada fully
implement the standards contained therein.” KAIROS calls on the government to take
an important step towards restoring faith in its commitment to Indigenous
peoples’ rights by endorsing this key international human rights instrument,
the first to recognize Indigenous rights as human rights.

Question
for the candidates:

Will your party
endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and
conclude treaties with Indigenous peoples that implement the rights contained
in the Declaration?

The most obvious trend weaving
through the day-to-day operations of the associated “faith-based” agencies is
the capacity to re-image Jesus Christ to whatever caricature best suits prevailing
temporal organizational objectives. Characterizations
vary (even within the same organization) from an irrelevant prophet to a serious
sage role model; but nowhere is there an agency faithfully glorifying the
biblically correct, divine, exclusive, authoritative Son of God.

Christianity is a
worldview of intricately interlocking beliefs, not some loosely arranged buffet
of Bible verses available for self-serving quotation.It is hypocritical, if not deceitful, for
the Canadian Council of Churches, in their letter to Prime Minister Harper on peacekeeping
in Afghanistan, to speak of “scriptural
imperatives”and to refer to a biblical text asserting
that it “was given not as good
advice but as a directive for living according to God`s will.”A liberal agency tacitly, if not overtly, proselytizing a common spirit
in all faiths, multiple redemptive paths to God and universal salvation, in
preference to evangelizing the scriptural
imperatives of accepting Christ’s divinity, resurrected status and redemptive
purpose, should refrain entirely from interpreting God’s Word (Hebrews 4:12-13).The CCC appeal to biblical authority is
doubly paradoxical, sent under the signatures of two senior United Church
ministers.Moreover, the CCC assertion in
their letter that their recommendations are “quintessentially Canadian
approaches” to instilling peace serves
only to expose their political-left bias and an unchristian, condescending
attitude.Given that a majority of
Parliamentarians (Conservative and Liberal) chose to essentially support the Manley Reportand not the CCC recommendations, are
we to now assume that God`s directive has been ignored; His will
thwarted?

When Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran,
Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United Church representatives on the Canadian Churches
Forum dialogue with Scarboro Missions to determine “prophetic witness,”do they agree with the Missions’ assertion that “all are united in
the spirit of one God,” and that “we are called to uphold the
spirit of universal interdependence with our sisters and brothers of all faiths”?The Scarboro Missions’
thinking is grossly antichristian.If
the other representatives are at ease with this outlook, what does that say
about their level of conviction, their level of thankfulness for the redemptive
blood of Jesus Christ and the truth of His Gospel?

Religious liberals, who advocate world
federalism, who fellowship in inter-faith world parliaments, who advocate “irrevocable”
global ethics, who witness to a universal spiritual destiny, and who busy
themselves exclusively with temporal issues, have what scripture to support
their actions?The last time the whole
human race united in an attempt to take control of its own destiny by
man-centered efforts; to seize the reins of history for the sake of their own
glory, God saw this effort as manifest rebellion (Genesis 11:1-9).If Christians truly wish to impact poverty,
injustice and the environment, they must pursue a path that rightfully
glorifies Jesus Christ.God cannot bless
actions that amount to rebellion.Forming an alliance of multifaith, non-sectarian and humanist groups, no
matter how altruistic the goals, when executed at the cost of silencing ardent
evangelization of the Gospel message is doomed to failure.In all Christ must be exalted(Matthew 6:31-34).

When WICC countenances homosexist theology and
a feminist notion of theology that “is
created in ‘being and doing’” and must be “radically inclusionary,” they are approving anti-Christian beliefs.
The last three verses in the Bible warn
against creating new theology (Revelation 22:18-19) and the entirety of
scripture holds homosexual behaviour in a negative judgment.Moreover, an endorsement of the pro-choice position that
“all mothers should freely choose to give
life,” effectively declares God
no longer involved in pregnancy, no
longer the author of when a life is created and no longer in control of whether
human life has value.This position is fundamentally anti-Christian; WICC should not hold an opinion similar to the secular humanist worldview, the same perspective that Margaret Sanger and Henry Morgentaler hold.Feminist icon, Diana Alstad revealed the truth behind pro-abortion advocacy
when she said:

I view the
abortion fight as the front line in America of a much larger battle, the
planetary battle that I call ‘the morality wars.’ This is a battle for people’s
minds over ‘Who has the right to decide what’s right?’ and ‘What gives them the
right to do so?’ It’s between the forces of the old and the new, between
authoritarianism and democracy. Essentially, it’s fundamentalist, patriarchal
belief systems versus modern, evolutionary, feminist, feedback-based creative
approaches to living and solving our many global problems...We must never
forget that abortion is the bottom line of birth control. Without it, women
don’t have control over their bodies, and therefore over their lives. Without
it, the competitive playing field of money, power and independence is so skewed
in men’s favor that women really cannot have equal opportunity….[xvi][My underline]

Is
there not a huge contradiction in the authenticity of spirit and credibility of
thinking when religious liberals make a commitment to the global ethics of non-violence
and respect for life [feminist theologians in Bangalore put the position
this way: “Our
feminist hermeneutical approach begins by engaging the ways in which current
structures, systems and values of empire and globalization collude to deny
people of God’s vision for fullness of life for them.”] and yet they
sanction the 929,000,000 estimated abortions globally since 1920; or condone
the on-going termination of 1,202,000 pregnancies a month worldwide.[xvii] No surprise that a search on the WICC
website for “birth” brings up only three hits, all referring to the birth of
the Council. Does the new theology that
Dr. Gail Allan proclaims to her WICC listeners encourage keeping the national
birthrate below the replacement rate? There
are “feminist” views that do not require violence against the fetus, not to
mention the mother.Pro-life “feminist”
Frederica Mathewes-Green writes:

It is a cruel joke
to call this a woman’s ‘choice.’ We may choose to sacrifice our life and career
plans, or choose to undergo humiliating invasive surgery and sacrifice our
offspring. How fortunate we are – we have a choice! Perhaps it’s time to amend
the slogan—‘Abortion: a woman’s right to capitulate.’… we’re lying down on
abortion tables 1,600,000 times a year to ensure the status quo. We’ve adapted
to this surgical substitute, to the point that Justice Blackmun could write in
his Webster dissent, ‘Millions of women have ordered their lives around’
abortion. That we have willingly ordered our lives around a denigrating
surgical procedure – accepted it as the price we must pay to keep our life
plans intact—is an ominous sign…More insidiously, abortion advocacy has been
poisonous to some of the deeper values of feminism. For example, the need to
discredit the fetus has led us to the use of terms that would be disastrous if
applied to women. ‘It’s so small,’ ‘It’s unwanted,’ ‘It might be disabled,’ ‘It
might be abused.’ Too often women are small, unwanted, disabled, or abused. Do
we really want to say that these factors erase personhood?[xviii]

Sadly, in the era
of “abortion on demand,” those who see abortion as a surgical convenience and
who will end any number of pregnancies without reservation, are unable to look
at the gruesome handiwork they defend. Across the country, they shrink from
photos of babies killed in abortions. Through political pressure the
pro-abortionists compel television stations to refuse advertisements showing
partial birth or other abortion artefacts. Pro-choice advocates will not even
allow viewers to see what their policies have wrought. According to Benjamin Stein:

They are like the
Germans who refused to think about whatever was happening at Dachau and then
vomited when they saw and never wanted to see again. And for those who don’t
care to make the trip down that road, perhaps you can imagine the feelings of
tens of millions of us who see clearly that abortion is a violent killing of the
most innocent of humans.[xix]

Frankly, the Global
Ethic of living a life of truthfulness is of spurious value if society
is so liberal-minded as to accept the that truth is whatever the individual
asserts it to be; that your truth need not deny the truth of another. This trendy ethos of multiple truths refutes God’s Word; is an act of rebellion
against Jesus Christ. This liberal ethos
leads to the miserable social reality of abortion doctors, at one wing in a
hospital, discarding “unwanted” babies to die, while in another wing,
physicians are doing their best to sustain the threatened life of a fetus. This ethos leads to the unholy reality of
activists placing more importance on the life of a baby seal than on a human
life. This ethos casts no judgment on
the morality of the homosexual life style.
The reality that certain acts and relationships may be undignified in
God’s eyes is averted by the illogical premise that each person chooses the God
they wish to accept and can create and follow his own theology. When Dr. Gail Allan speaks of "transformative inviting a ‘radical inclusion’theologies – that honours personal and political, theory
and praxis, voices from the margins and the complexity of the contexts we
represent,” she is drawing upon a values common with libertinism, not Christian values.
The bearers of this line of thinking are much closer to the secular
humanist worldview than the Gospel truth.
Finally, on the Ethic of living
in truthfulness, parliament and the courts cannot operate on a multi-polar
basis – upholding a number of competing worldviews (truth systems) at the same
time or asserting different worldviews like one might gamble on a roulette
wheel. The state must choose its version of the truth. When the state held a heterosexist worldview,homosexuality
was tolerated and Christians could
freely witness in public; now that the state has adopted a homosexist worldview, homosexuality is declared equal to and
morally the same as heterosexuality, and Christians can no longer express in
public their version of the truth. The
Apostle Paul knew that everything hinged on the truth:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I
preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain (I Corinthians
!5:1-2).

...there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the
gospel of Christ.But though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed.As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed (Galatians 1:7-9).

The last matter under the general argument against the
re-imaging of Jesus Christ for the sake of religious liberalism has to do with
inter-faith relations with aboriginal or indigenous peoples. And the matter is raised at this point in the
essay solely on a theological theme, not on a political, reconciliatory or
human-rights basis. In 2007 the Anglican Church, Catholic Church, Christian
Reformed Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers), Presbyterian Church, Mennonite Central
Committee and United Church, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1987 A New Covenant Pastoral Statement on
Aboriginal Rights. In the original
text, re-affirmed in March 2007 is the following:

The idea of
covenant-making has deep spiritual roots which, in turn, can teach us a great
deal about the true purpose and meaning of covenant-making and covenant-keeping
among peoples today.In many Aboriginal
communities, the elders remind us of the covenants which their ancestors made
with the Great Spirit, the Creator. Similarly, we recall in the Judaeo-Christian
tradition the covenant which God made with the people if Israel. In turn,
this covenant was renewed by Jesus Christ who proclaimed the equality of all
human beings as sons and daughters of creation (e.g. Galatians 3:28)....Thus, there are moral and
spiritual dimensions to making and keeping covenants. These dimensions must be
part of the task of creating a new covenant involving Aboriginal peoples
in Canada today.[xx][My underline]

The relevant text from Galatians
reads:

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up
unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
might be justified by faith.But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.For ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to
the promise (Galatians 3:23-29). [See also John 3:14-21]

The Gospel truth, which the Covenant signatories (at least 6 of the
8) profess to know and follow, tells us that regardless of our heritage –
Sioux, Métis, Dene, English, Chinese, Ethiopian, Arab, etc., faith in the
resurrected Jesus Christ saves.Moreover, there are no other salvation paths (John 14:6).None of the signatories have the authority to
alter patent interpretation of scripture or reimage Christ to create a new [spiritual] covenant involving Aboriginal peoples.The indigenous peoples are equal in every way
to the rest of mankind in the spiritual realm.All need to accept the peace, grace and sanctifying power of Jesus
Christ.The moment Christians stop
wanting to evangelize this fact, is the day they better question their own
salvation experience.God will cannot be
mocked.

Moreover, the following scripture
from the Book of Hebrews tells Christians that the first covenant, which God made with the people of Israel, was replaced
not renewed in Christ:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto
them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation.For the law having a shadow
of good things to come, and not
the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.For then would they not have ceased to be
offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more
conscience of sins.But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance
again made of sins every
year.For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins.Wherefore when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me:In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for
sin thou hast had no pleasure.Then said
I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will,
O God.Above when he said,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the
law;Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.By the which will we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.And every priest
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which
can never take away sins:But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand
of God;From henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool.For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,This is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I
will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;And their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more.Now
where remission of these is, there is
no more offering for sin (9:28; 10:1-17).
[My underline]

When feminist theology combines with multifaith spiritualism the result is revealed in this video clip from the
2007 GDOP at Dominion-Chalmers United Church in which one prayer warrior refers
to the Holy Spirit as she: "I ask the Holy Spirit that she would
send..." and in which a small group wearing the ritual dress of the
First Nations plays what appears to be a Native Indian spiritual
rhythm on drums?

The second
obvious trend weaving through the day-to-day operations of these associated
“faith-based” and non-sectarian organizations is a bias for left-wing
approaches to solving the “social” problems they indentify.

Such a political bias for Christians in this era of
sexual liberation and state sponsored homosexism, is a precarious position to
hold, if not a spiritual conundrum. The
fact that Christianity is a counter-cultural worldview, in a prevailing
post-modern era, suggests Christianity has a natural compatibly with the traditional
conservative politics of the right. Most
are familiar with the American usage of the term “Christian-right.” Those who are fundamentally concerned about obedience
to God’s Word gravitate to conservatism.
The Christian worldview goes against prevailing cultural trends which
are invariably birthed or endorsed by socialist movements – feminism, sexual
liberation, abortion on demand, state sponsored homosexism, same-sex marriage,
soft criminal justice and soft anti-pornography legislation (under the guise of
freedom of speech). De-criminalization
of prostitution, marijuana usage and euthanasia, and legalization of stem cell
research are all legislations welcomed by most left-leaning governments. When
technology is ripe for human cloning, it will not be the conservative right
that is pushing for its legalization. Socialists
are strong advocates of state incursions into the nuclear family for the sake
of indoctrinating the next generation in right values and effectively
deconstructing the “patriarchal” biblical family. Feminist Kate Millet put the socialist agenda
this way:

There is one more
cardinal point in Engels’ theory of sexual revolution, bound to provoke more
controversy than all others: ‘with the transformation of the means of
production into collective property, the monogamous family will cease to be the
economic unit of society. The care and education of children becomes a public
matter.’...There is something logical and even inevitable in this
recommendation, for so long as every female, simply by virtue of her anatomy,
is obliged, even forced, to be the sole or primary caretaker of childhood, she
is prevented from being a free being. The care of children, even from the
period when their cognitive powers first emerge, is infinitely better left to
the best trained practitioners of both sexes…rather than to harried and all too
frequently unhappypersons with little
time nor taste for the work of educating minds, however young or beloved. The
radical outcome of Engels’ analysis is that the family, as that term is
presently understood, must go.[xxi]

Unapologetic, the less common named group - the "Christian left" has co-opted with the socialist cause which has totally embraced
radical feminism and homosexismover
religious orthodoxy.Heterosexism is seen in socialist
ideology as a cultural construct, the illegitimate basis for “patriarchal oppression.”In Loving Men/Loving Women: Gay Liberation and
the Church, feminist Sally Gearhart declares the fundamental assault still being
directed at organized religion from within and without.She writes:

The churches are our most up-front pushers of the
sex-role habit, of daddy-mommybaby habit. They peddle the drug daily.[xxii]

Ultimately the church as we know it cannot be
reformed; it must die. So must the Trinitarian theology on which it is based.[xxiii]

A study of the forerunners to today’s so-called “religious
left” – the “Liberal or Social Gospel Reformers”
of the nineteenth and early twentieth century’s reveals a move away from
orthodoxy and from the central and “spiritual” focus of Christianity – the
salvation message, to a more “temporal” service-based witness. In the nineteenth century the “urgent” need
to shift from that of feeding God’s sheep spiritual sustenance (Matthew 4:4) to
one of social assistance was ironically not chronic poverty but the arrival of
the so-called “Age of Enlightenment.” After researching the
intellectual crisis of Christianity in nineteenth century Canada, historian and
author, Ramsay Cook, concluded that “Liberal Reformers,” he used the term “Regenerators,”
had not brought Canadians closer to God’s Kingdom, but had accomplished the
exact opposite, a major shift in Canadian society towards secularism.
Explaining the decay of traditional or orthodox religious belief during the
late 1800s, Cook wrote:

…the religious crisis provoked by Darwinian science
and historical criticism of the Bible led religious people to attempt to
salvage Christianity by transforming it into an essentially social
religion. The orthodox Christian preoccupation with man’s salvation; the
traditional Christian emphasis on man’s relationship with God shifted to a
focus on man’s relationship with man. This union of the sacred and the
secular was followed, in my view, by the substitution of theology, the science
of religion, with sociology, the science of society. In theological terms
the development I have analyzed is the emergence of a modernist theology, which
insisted that Christianity was not separate from modern culture, but rather
should be adapted to it. That theology was founded upon a denial of God’s
transcendence and an insistence upon his immanence in the world. It
followed that a society in which God was immanent was one that could eventually
become the kingdom of God on earth.

This transformation may seem as the decline of
traditional orthodoxy, a mere change in religious thinking, or it may be seen
as part of something more radical, namely, secularization. In my view the
shift in beliefs and values that took place in English Canadian society, and in
other related Protestant societies coincidentally, was so fundamental as to
deserve to be called ‘secularization.’And so my argument: the
supreme irony of the regenerators was that the new birth to which they
contributed was not, as they had hoped, the city of God on earth but rather a
secular city.[xxiv]

Now consider in this day, what religious liberals,
aligned with the left, are calling for and committing in the name of their faith. Can the result be anything but more of the
same – secularization, but on a global scale?
Today the new crisis is climate change, which unchecked will seriously impact
levels of poverty and social justice. In
response the so-called “Christian-left” calls for urgent movement toward their goals of world federalism, enforcement
of global ethics, and establishment of global spiritualism – defined here as a
harmonization and equalization of all religions; or all paths lead to the Great
Creator; or Christ has no special importance over indigenous spirits or prophet
Muhammad. No one on the left is interested
in a spirit-led revival in the name of Jesus Christ; indeed, this would royally
disrupt interfaith religious planning at national, United Nations, and World Parliament
levels. Religious liberals would rather “bench”
Christ for this round or re-package His Gospel for inclusive religious harmony. Human unity is the preferred approach to fix this
crisis, not extra obedience and more reverence to God. No one in the Christian-left dares to challenge
socialist solidarity on liberal abortion access, public indoctrination to homosexism
and same-sex marriage. No one on the Christian-left
dares to publicly profess Jesus Christ to be the world’s unique,
exclusive Lord and Saviour, who will one day return to separate the saved from
the lost. [For a revealing analysis from
a Christian perspective of the Political Left, Center and Right in the 2006
Election –click here]

The political bias of agencies like the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canadian Health Coalition and Common Frontiers is
no surprise given the membership make-up.
However, regarding health care, neither universal nor two-tier schemes
can be said to have or not have God’s blessing.
The approach used to solve this temporal issue is not a faith matter. The person at Ecumenical Health Care Network,
who criticized the authenticity of Stockwell Day’s faith because of his “neo-conservative political obsession with
tax cuts” and openness to health care alternatives needs to be reminded of
the Supreme
Court of Canadaruling on wait times.The issue is whether the right of Canadians
to "life, liberty and security of the person" means that nobody
should suffer agonizing pain for a year while waiting for hip surgery.Perhaps the Christian-left wish to contend
that the George Zeliotis’s of this world (age 73, waiting for a hip replacement)
should suffer in the cue like everyone else because this is God’s will.

Christians
interested in reducing poverty, eradicating injustice and improving the
environment should focus on raising the profile of the problem with politicians
and resist the indignity of offering half cooked solutions heavy flavoured with
political bias. If the Canadian Council
of Churches put half the effort spent on recommending Canadian peacekeeping policy
for Afghanistan into addressing the same-sex marriage divide amongst the
churches that might achieve something positive for the kingdom. If KAIROS put half the effort spent on lobbying
for ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into
a policy on the injustice perpetrated upon the unborn by abortion, they would
be doing something for the kingdom. What is the KAIROS opinion on Bill C-484 Unborn Victims of Crime Act? The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has made their position clear. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has also declared their position in solidarity with the ARCC. Thirty-seven states in the the US have already enacted similar legislations. What is the KAIROS opinion on legalizing marijuana? The Liberal and NDP Parties appear undecided about who should support the legilation. Under the circumstances some Christian justice advice could be most appreciated. And what is the KAIROS position on legalizing prostitution?

It
is regrettable to find, after a formal apology on the
Residential Schools Matter by the Federal Government, that KAIROS asserts this action to be meaningless without Canadian approval of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.The
reader must skim this Declaration to form an opinion.Four
of the 46 articles are listed below:

Article 5

Indigenous peoples have the right to
maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and
cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if
they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the
State.

Article 18

Indigenous peoples have the right to
participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights,
through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own
procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making
institutions.

Article 24

Indigenous peoples have the right to their
traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the
conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous
individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all
social and health services.

Article 45

Nothing in this Declaration may be construed
as diminishing or extinguishing the rights indigenous peoples have now or may
acquire in the future.

Canada’sPositionwas made clear in a lengthy
report dated June 29, 2006 (a must read).In the KAIROS election 2008 guidance, the agency makes
no mention of the reasons for the Government not signing the Declaration nor does the agency list the other countries that would not sign, nor did they mention the countries that ratified the document with significant reservations. Ever wonder about the legal ramifications for the United Kingdom in approving an agreement on indigenous peoples? Why might the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Philippines, Russia and Ukraine have reservations? India embraced the Declaration with alcrity after establishing all residents of the country as indigenous peoples.

It is doubtful that this essay will turn the hearts of any religious
liberals or change the direction of the boards and councils they lead and attend.This was never the key purpose in this
research and writing.The hope attached
to this effort is that more believers will recognize the tsunami of universal
spiritualism cresting just out of sight, waiting for the right crisis to bring
a unified and harmonized multifaith wave crashing down on the faithful.Everything that does not exalt Christ is not of
Christ.Believers are naive to think
that anything good will come of re-imaging or denying Christ for the so-called “greater
good.”Believers also need to recognize
the tidal wave of leftist political advice building from the expectations of
world federalists, world religious parliamentarians, United Nations promoters,
interfaith ecumenists and angry feminist theologians.Christians need to unite more than ever
before; but we need to unite on a basis that exalts Jesus Christ.Our goal should be a crown of righteousness:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.I
charge thee therefore before
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall
be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing
(II Timothy 3:16-17; 4:1-8).

To
Thee be endless praise, for Thou for us hast died;
Be Thou, O Lord, thru endless days adored and magnified.